In a typical wireless network, many devices can communicate with each other. To facilitate communications between multiple networkable devices, communications must be managed. Thus, each network typically has a communications controller such as an access point, a piconet controller (PNC), a PBSS central point (PCP) or a station (STA) that acts as a controller to manage network communication. A PNC can be defined as a controller that shares a physical channel with one or more stations where the PNC and stations form a network. Each station, such as a personal computer, can associate with the controller and thereby associate with the network. Associating with the network can include connecting to the network. Getting authorized by the network and gaining access to resources that are available via the network connection. Stations and network controllers typically utilize a network interface card (NIC) to handle the association process and to facilitate communication between the network devices. To increase system efficiency, some wireless networks utilize omni-directional transmissions for the association process and directional transmissions for data exchange.
Many wireless networks utilize a frequency of 2.4 GHz for communicating, as defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ((IEEE)) 802.11b and g specifications. Other wireless networks utilize a frequency of 5 GHz for communicating as defined by the IEEE 802.11a specification. IEEE 802.11a and b were published in 1999, and IEEE 802.11g was published in 2003. Due to the number of networks, and crowded airways in these frequency ranges, additional wireless networks standards are being defined where such networks can communicate utilizing millimeter waves producing frequencies of around 60 GHz. With such high frequencies, directional communications are being considered to achieve acceptable performance for the expected link budget requirements.
The network controller can be configured to receive, via multiple spatially apart antenna elements, combined signals simultaneously transmitted from a plurality of STAs and separate the received signals into independent signals from each STA through appropriate signal processing. Also, the network controller may transmit directional radio signals via multiple spatially apart antenna elements towards intended STAs to suppress interference and increase signal-to-noise ratio.
Coexistence, whether with networks of the same type or different type, is a subject of growing attention and concern in unlicensed wireless systems. The PCP/AP clustering scheme in the WiGig specification and IEEE 802.11ad draft standard addresses this problem for the 60 GHz band, which will be particularly important in dense environments such as in enterprises.
Currently, there are no existing methods that allow non-PCP/non-AP STAs to report on the existence of other overlapping BSSs, including their characteristics such as scheduling information. This is particularly the case in 60 GHz technologies, where such feature may be important. Moreover, there are no existing methods that allow non-PCP/non-AP STAs to request their PCP/AP to enable PCP/AP clustering in their own BSS.
Given the above problem, improvements in the coexistence of overlapping BSSs and hence a better user experience when employing 60 GHz-based wireless systems is needed.